The Matildas defeated New Zealand 2-0 in Melbourne on Thursday, continuing their preparations ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup which begins July 20th. Ellie Carpenter and Michelle Heyman scored for Australia, providing a positive result as the team fine-tunes its strategy against anticipated defensive opponents.
This kind served as a crucial dress rehearsal for the Matildas, offering valuable match experience against a team expected to present a similar tactical challenge to some of their World Cup group stage rivals. Head coach Tony Montemurro emphasized the importance of controlling possession and patiently breaking down a compact defense, a scenario the team anticipates facing frequently throughout the tournament.
Carpenter opened the scoring, celebrating with Heyman after finding the back of the net. Montemurro noted New Zealand’s attacking wing backs caused some defensive issues for australia, exposing the team “twice in the first half and three times in the second half,” despite focused preparation on countering that tactic.
“They hurt us a bit with their wing backs very, very high,” Montemurro saeid. “And it was just frustrating because we worked a lot on that defensive sort of scenario.”
Despite the defensive lapses, Montemurro was pleased with the team’s ability to dictate the tempo and create opportunities through patient build-up play. He highlighted the team’s success in exploiting space when New Zealand adopted a midblock formation.
“We wanted to go out and control the game. we wanted to make sure that we dictated when we decided to go forward and rotate, to prepare opportunities to go forward. And we found some space by being patient and dominating and rotating with the ball.”
Montemurro expressed satisfaction that New Zealand dropped into a deeper defensive shape, mirroring a tactic he expects to encounter often during the World Cup. He believes the match provided valuable practise in solving the challenges posed by such formations.
“I was happy that New zealand dropped off a little bit more as we think we’re going to get a lot of teams that will create midblock,” he said. “So we had to find the solutions and we had to find the solutions with a little bit of patience, but also finding the space at the right time … you saw tonight the dominance of when they did drop off, we were able to play through them.”
The match was played at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne. Details on how to watch the FIFA Women’s World Cup, including schedules and broadcast information, are available on the FIFA website (https://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/). The matildas are in Group B alongside Canada, Nigeria, and the Republic of Ireland.
